OPEN letter to ALBERT VUN CHEONG FUI

OPEN letter to Datuk Albert CF Vun by Joshua Y. C. Kong                      23^rd December, 2012

Bishop A Vun, (on Sabbatical leave soon)

Re:  D’Sulaman Anglican Church

I am very reluctant to write to you because you did not bother to reply to my mails including AR Registered Letter.

But this time, I am writing before you go on your sort of Sabbatical leave and I want the answer before do so.  I don’t think anyone else can answer my questions and I also believe you may not like my questions.  Nevertheless as a bishop, you are responsible for this project in the captioned title.

The Questions and comments are as follows (no politics but hard facts):-

1. According to the 2012 Synod papers, this corner 5 storeyed shophouse in Sulaman, near Kota Kinabalu cost some thing like RM3.46m in 2011, but some put the project at RM4.7m.  Which is the correct figure?  How much did the renovation/improvement cost to the Anglican Diocese of Sabah?  Can you give a detailed breakdown of the money incurred?
2. Can you let us have sight of the documents – legal and otherwise for this purchase?
3. Is this a project partly financed by All Saints’ Cathedral like most new churches around Kota Kinabalu, and if so how much of that money for this project come from ASC and others?
4. You 'officiated?' this new church on 2^nd December, 2012 rushing from All Saints’ Cathedral 7.30am service after sending off the Lo family  to FCC with a blessing, but was the new Church ready with a proper name sign board?
5. One of the church members sent me a photograph taken on Saturday 22^nd December, 2012 showing some workers and crane fixing the new name sign board at the 4^th Floor.  (please see attached).  You wrote you were preaching (officiating?) in an incomplete church on 2^nd December, 2012.  Was it just a deliberate move to avoid seeing the ASC congregation again after that service on 2^nd December?
6. Today Sunday 23^rd December, 2012, in Daily Express there was a full page Advertisement about KK Anglican churches’ Christmas worship services.  D’Sulaman Anglican Church was at the bottom right where the address was given as 4^th Floor (top floor).  So I would like to know what would be used for the other four floors?  You have also bought a flat in University Apartment of RM250,000 for the accommodation of Pastor Sonia, whose husband a Diocesan priest died in  “suspicious” scenario after an alleged heart operations (one or two or more).
7. I have been to your ADOS homepage  and found nothing more of the said new church on 2^nd December, 2012. where you preached.  I would like to see the size of the first congregation.

I need to get the straight answer from you as ASC would soon hold its AGM sometimes in March, 2013 and you would not be there to enlighten us especially this church is challenged by a nearby existing Anglican Christ the King.  So why the need of this church in that context?

I doubt anybody including the Diocesan Chancellor and the Diocesan Standing Committee can answer my questions especially when the 5 floor building and only one floor at the top is used as the church.

Although the ADOS is not in normal business, I wonder how can the church ever recoup the more than RM5m spent in this project.  This is a new area and how can anyone get any reasonable financial returns for the other four floors likely to be empty for some time.  Please tell us your plan now.  Maybe it is another white elephant like Kokol Prayers Summit costing up to RM8m while many rural Anglican churches are crying out for some desperate fund.

Wish Jesus Christ a very Happy Birthday 2012.

Yours faithfully,

Joshua Y. C. Kong